Turn Back
by romeocitychicag
Summary: Not much more than a reimagining of how Byleth reunites with Dimitri after the timeskip. Byleth's gender is kept ambiguous.


Turn Back

_What happened here?_

A man in Garreg Mach told me that the monastery had been overrun by thieves; carpetbaggers in the war with the Empire. How could I have forgotten that?

Actually, it did make sense. Sothis and I had been buried under the rubble for a long time. My limbs felt as stiff as derelict machine parts groaning to life again. We'd been pinned there for...?

"What year is it?" I asked the man in front of me. My voice felt just as rusty as my limbs.

The commoner kept his baffled expression. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head or something?" he drawled. "It's the Ethereal Moon, year 1185. It's been about five years since the monastery fell."

He rambled on about the absence of the millennium festival. The one that was supposed to happen to commemorate the one-thousandth anniversary of the monastery's completion. He might as well have been speaking in a different language; nothing that he said registered. His explanation of the time explained the biting cold, though.

Regardless, I had the information that I wanted. I turned around and took a step when the man said something again.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"The monastery." I blurted out.

"I told you, there's thieves up there! I heard a group of Imperial soldiers were slaughtered! Not one survivor!"

I felt around my waist. The Sword of Creation was still there. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

I think he said something akin to "Your funeral" when I started walking away again. I couldn't afford to waste any more time on him. I had to get to the monastery. I had to see what it was really like up there.

I listened for Sothis's voice. She never showed up.

* * *

I felt the faint warmth of the morning sun on my back as I climbed the stairs up to the cathedral. My stomach turned as more horrors were revealed before my eyes and beneath my feet. Piles of dead bodies lined the steps, their faces mercifully turned over into little puddles of snow. They only increased in number as I continued upward.

As a former mercenary, I should have been used to seeing corpses. I found that I still had to tiptoe around them, though; whether it was out of respect or disgust, I didn't know.

I focused on the sound of my boots hammering the stone as I climbed higher.

The light increased, peaking where a stained glass skylight rained hues of pink and orange onto the floor of a lonesome room. Glittering patches of snow claimed the perimeter.

I wasn't alone, though. A body was curled up against the cracked wall behind them, their lance sticking straight up in the air; a flag of surrender.

The light failed to reach them where they were. As I treaded toward them, the sun rose (at a breakneck pace, as it always seemed to do at dawn) and covered more of the area. It reached the body, whose hair shone a brilliant golden.

_Wait..._

I inched closer. When I reached the center of the skylight, I was startled by a muffled whimper. I didn't show it; I had been trained better than to react to surprise.

_It can't be..._

With considerable effort, the person lifted their head. A lone icy blue eye peered out from the curtain of blond hair, squinting in the brightness. Their pallid face was smeared with blood. Fresh or old, I couldn't tell from this distance.

_Is it...?_

I approached the person and held out my hand.

_It is._

They stared at it. They then looked up at me, plaintive.

"I should've known..." a familiar voice rasped. He painstakingly turned his head away from me. "That one day, you would be haunting me as well."

* * *

Dimitri rose up from the ground, using his lance for support. It slipped out of his hand and clanked to the floor. He made no move to pick it up again.

"_What must I do to be rid of you?_"

I gawked at Dimitri. He was missing his right eye; I didn't realize that his hair was hiding an eye patch. Still, he managed to bore his gaze into me with such desperation and intensity.

"I will kill that woman, I swear. Do not look at me with such scorn in your eyes!" He marched past me and continued his rant. "I know why you are here. I do not need to be reminded of my burden. I know you will not be satisfied until I bring you that vile witch's head!"

"What are you talking about?" I gasped.

Dimitri froze. "Are you-" He stopped. I heard him growl, seemingly to himself. "You must be an Imperial spy."

"Imperial spy?"

"Don't lie to me!" Dimitri tried to lunge at me, but only collapsed. I managed to catch him under his shoulders before he hit the floor.

Now that he sunk down to his knees, I could make eye contact with him. "Are you okay?"

He said nothing. He only pushed me away and adjusted himself into a sitting position. Even through the armor, he felt frighteningly insubstantial. He was shaking like a leaf, too.

A weak command escaped his lips. "Get your hands off of me. The professor is dead. Buried under the rubble."

"The goddess protected me."

I let him examine my hair and eyes. That would have given away the truth, right?

Recognition flashed in his face. "You're alive?"

I nodded and gave a disarming smile. "I'm glad that you're safe, Dimitri." The blood was dried on; I could see how some of it flaked off of his cheek.

I offered the prince (or king, I should say) my hand again. He refused it and pushed himself up.

I have to admit that it hurt that time.

* * *

The floor under me felt as if it were sinking; one wrong move and I would be swallowed whole. "What have you been doing these past five years?"

Dimitri folded his arms. "I have been dead, more or less." He closed his eye, probably to block out the rising sun. It highlighted the creased lines and dark circles on his exhausted face.

I noticed his arms fall to his sides. I stepped closer, in case he collapsed again. "What do you mean by that?" I tried to keep my tone as gentle as possible.

I saw a sliver of his blue eye peek out. "When the monastery fell, order in this area fell right along with it." he sneered. "Thieves run rampant, lured by the promise of treasure. These _rats _have infested. Can you not hear them?"

He said that with a chilling assuredness. I made no comment as he continued.

"I will kill them all. Even if it means becoming a rat myself, I will put an end to the strong trampling on the weak."

This was wrong. This was _all wrong. _The broken man standing before me and Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd were two completely different people. Dimitri was always rational and controlled in his actions and mannerisms, and showed extensive compassion to those less fortunate. The person glaring back at me was pale as death, barely able to stand on his own two feet yet speaking of killing other human beings as if it were the same as exterminating pests.

Yes, I saw the signs; everybody did. Something fundamental changed in Remire Village. It was impossible to not notice how reckless and unhinged he became after the Flame Emperor's mask fell. She became his sole obsession.

_Edelgard. _She was surely the "vile witch" that Dimitri had to slaughter.

This couldn't end well. Somebody had to rein him in before he got himself killed."You don't have to do this. You don't have to kill them in order to stop them."

"And why shouldn't I?" Dimitri growled.

"The thieves are just trying to get by."

"Is it that you condone their actions? Do you believe that the pillaging and slaughtering these vermin perpetuate is justified?"

"I never said that."

Dimitri turned away from me again. This was going nowhere. I had to strike down to the heart of the matter.

"You don't have to do this."

"This chatter is pointless."

"Listen to me," I interjected. "_This. _All of this."

He was silent for a few moments. "You couldn't hope to understand."

I already knew what he was talking about. His "burden," his supposed obligation to avenge the dead.

"I lost my father too. You know that." I still wince at the thought; the utter helplessness I felt as my power failed to stop Kronya. The sickening cry as her sword pierced his middle. I could only stand and watch as the light in my father's eyes slipped away.

"Do you think this is what they really want? All of this violence and bloodshed?" If Dimitri's family were able to watch over him, wouldn't they want to see him living a joyful and prosperous life? "Revenge won't bring them back."

I took the risk of stepping in front of Dimitri. I couldn't gauge his reaction. I noticed that his trembling grew worse, though.

He quickly regained composure and changed the subject. "It's time to take down the rats' nest."

_Did he listen at all?_

My last desperate attempt to change his mind unfurled. "You can still turn back from this."

"Have I not made my intentions clear?"

I felt a chill run up my spine. "Can the two of us take them all down?"

"It doesn't matter. I will kill them all."


End file.
